Four miners drowned when water burst through the wall of a mine 300ft
underground with a sound “like a jet engine”, a court heard yesterday.

The men who died at the Gleision Colliery near Neath, South Wales, were
blasting to get at more coal after six weeks mining in a tunnel 2ft 6in high.

Malcolm Fyfield, the manager of the mine, managed to crawl to safety through a
series of abandoned tunnels and spent a week in intensive care after the
accident in September 2011. Two other men also survived.